


Take Me Apart

by delulusional



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Friends to Enemies, Inspired by the story of Mark getting Donghyuck a... certain thing for his birthday..., M/M, Might get a little spicy... but not sure if I'll go as far as full-blown smut, Will tag explicit for now just to be safe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:01:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25064314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delulusional/pseuds/delulusional
Summary: Mark getting a gag birthday gift for Donghyuck results in their friendship crumbling. Can they pick up the pieces and rebuild what they once had?
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 14
Kudos: 64





	Take Me Apart

**Author's Note:**

> So... this is my first ever fic I'm posting on the internet! Nervous and excited! I'm not a skilled writer like... at all but I've been taking an interest in it recently! And I just love Markhyuck so much and felt compelled to write something about them. So here's my attempt! Inspired by the story of Mark getting Haechan a ***** for his birthday (huge dick move imo... but Mark got him an iPhone for his birthday this year so I guess he's redeemed himself...) Anyways please enjoy!
> 
> Feedback is VERY much wanted and appreciated. I'm trying to become a decent writer!

_“FUCK you, Mark!”_

The entirety of NCT are left stunned in the living room after Donghyuck angrily slams the birthday gift from Mark onto the ground and storms out towards his room. The boys wait to hear the door violently slam before collectively letting out a breath.

The silence in the room is unsettling, considering it was in an uproar just a few seconds ago – full of cackling and excited clapping and stomping. All eyes look towards Mark, awaiting his next move.

“Um. I should go talk to him,” Mark says getting up – the guilt clearly settling on his face. 

“Mark, no, ” Taeyong stops him with a firm hand on his shoulder. “Not this time… let him cool off for a bit… please.”

“...okay.”

The thought of Donghyuck fuming alone in his room and the tension between them being left to boil over until it burns everyone around them leaves Mark feeling anxious and embarrassed. He barely sleeps that night.

—

In the morning, Mark rubs the exhaustion and eye boogers out of his eyes as he walks blindly down the hall. He follows the smell and sounds of the dorm aunty making pancakes. Donghyuck’s favorite — he’ll _have to_ show up for breakfast.

Mark stops in the living room when he sees Johnny laying on the couch, a third of his body poking out of his blanket and hanging over the arm of the couch.

Mark sighs. “You slept out here?”

Johnny looks up from his phone, irritation clear on his face. “He locked the door.”

“...Sorry man.”

“You really did it this time, Mark,” Johnny says as he gets up and massages his sore neck. “You couldn’t just be nice to him for one day? On his birthday?”

“Dude, you laughed too! I didn’t think he’d get so mad, it was a joke…” Mark complains, following Johnny into the kitchen.

“Yeah, well… Fix it or else you owe me a lifetime supply of massages.”

“Ugh… No thank you.”

The 127 boys slowly appear out of their rooms for breakfast – some of them willingly, others by force with the dorm aunty pulling them by an ear. 

“I knocked several times. Donghyuck isn’t answering,” the dorm aunty says worriedly. “Taeyong, are you sure he’s okay?”

“Yeah, he’s fine… he just had a rough day yesterday. We’ll save some pancakes for him to take with him when we leave for Inki…” Taeyong tells her. “Sorry aunty, I know you were excited to make him pancakes for his birthday.”

The boys eat with minimal banter, all of them uncomfortable about Donghyuck’s absence. The sweet scent of pancakes that fills the kitchen is suddenly sour and overwhelming.

Taeyong elbows Mark. “Talk to him before we leave. Fix it.” 

Mark sighs and nods. “...yeah.”

Mark pokes holes in his soggy pancakes and doesn’t take more than a couple bites. His appetite is gone — guilt filling his stomach instead.

—

Mark rushes out of his room the second he hears the bathroom door open, desperately trying to intercept Donghyuck.

“Haecha—oh,” Mark’s breath hitches and he realizes this maybe wasn’t the best way to confront his friend.

He’s met with a shirtless Donghyuck, nothing but a towel hanging low on his hips with a tense fist holding it closed. Dark brown hair still dripping. Face and chest still flushed from a hot shower. Water droplets slowly making their way down his tan skin. Irritation bubbling up on his face. Mark pretends not to notice the way his own heart starts beating faster and the way his face heats up.

“What do you want,” Donghyuck finally says after several seconds of awkward staring.

“...oh I just wanted to talk. To apologize for...y’know.”

“Keep it.” Donghyuck spits out, moving to push past Mark but the blonde boy holds his arms out, blocking his escape down the hall.

“Please, Donghyuck. _Please._ ” 

Donghyuck looks up and sees Mark’s misty, bloodshot eyes. He lets out a _tsk_ and gives in. “...Well, can I at least fucking get dressed first?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” Mark says after awkwardly and regretfully looking down at Haechan’s body, and then panicking and forcing his eyes to dart away. “My room please?”

Donghyuck notices Mark’s cheeks slowly starting to blush. “...okay.”

—

Mark lays in bed, scrolling through the secret twitter account he made for occasionally snooping around. He browses the #HaechanDay hashtag with a dumb grin on his face — bookmarking countless pictures, videos, and memes of Donghyuck that he hopes they can laugh about together after they squash their beef for what must be the 1000th time.

He eventually comes across fan art someone drew of himself and Donghyuck. _Ahh, cute..._ he thinks to himself before pressing the image to expand it and see the rest. He gasps as he sees the full thing — it’s a comic of the two celebrating the younger’s birthday. Donghyuck blows the candles out on a cake decorated with sunflowers in the first panel, Mark proceeds to wipe icing onto his cheek in the second panel, in the third panel Donghyuck turns to his assailant and grabs his wrist, and finally in the fourth it shows him licking the icing off of a shocked and blushing Mark’s finger.

Mark wordlessly saves the comic to his photos. His hands suddenly become clammy, he feels his face heat up, sweat form on his forehead and upper lip, and a shameful feeling growing below his stomach.

Suddenly he hears a knock on his door and he shoots up from the position he was laying down in. He gulps as he locks his phone and places it facedown on the bed.

“...Haechan? Come in.”

The door opens in what feels like slow motion as Donghyuck lets himself in and closes the door behind him. He doesn’t make any moves after that, crossing his arms over his chest defensively and looking down at the floor. “...so?”

Mark tries his best to compose himself and shoves the comic as far back into his consciousness as he can. He moves to sit cross legged to make room for Hyuck on the bed and pats the space in front of him. “Sit Haechan… please.”

“Can you just say what you need to say so I can go get ready. I’m not in the mood, Mark.” 

“Haechan, please just _sit,_ ” Mark begs, pleading with his signature sparkling eyes and endearing pout that make the butterflies in Donghyuck’s belly go buckwild. “I promise I’ll make this quick just sit with me, _please_.”

Hyuck rolls his eyes before sighing and moving to sit on the edge of the bed, still not facing Mark directly. “Go.”

“Haechan, please look at me.”

“Just TALK.”

“PLEASE look at me Donghyuck.”

“FUCK! Fine!” Donghyuck yells, exasperated. He moves to sit cross legged in front of Mark but still refuses to completely face Mark — keeping his head down and instead choosing to focus his eyes on the dark hair and bruises from endless hours of dance practice on Mark’s legs. He wants to touch but doesn’t.

“Thank you…” Mark lets out a breath he must have been holding. “Donghyuck, I’m so so sorry.”

Haechan rolls his eyes again. “Is that it?”

“I’m... sorry if the gift I gave you hurt your feelings. I meant it as a joke, I thought it would be funny but I felt so bad as soon as I saw your face. I’m sorry everybody laughed at you. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry,” Mark fires off in slightly broken Korean, talking at the speed of light as he usually does when he’s flustered. “Donghyuck, I feel so bad for doing that to you on your birthday—”

“I’m sick of you treating me like _shit_ Mark,” Donghyuck interrupts. “You do nothing but push me away and find ways to make me feel stupid and undesirable… I don’t wanna do this anymore.” 

_The image of the bible in his hands with the pink post-it note reading “What you need the most!” next to a badly drawn devil on it flashes into Donghyuck’s mind. He hears all of the NCT boys laughing in his face again. Feet stomping, hands clapping. Mark holding his stomach with one hand and pointing at him mockingly._

Donghyuck tenses up and feels his eyes watering. He closes his hands into fists. 

Mark reaches out to put a hand on the younger boy’s shoulder and flinches as he feels him tense up under his touch. “Hyuck… You’re my best friend. The last thing I want you to feel is… that I don’t want you around. I’m sorry. I’ll do better. I promise. I’ll make it up to you… I actually have a real gift that I was gonna give you before you uh… yeah. Can I give it to you?”

Donghyuck sniffles and shrugs. Mark takes that as a yes and gets up to retrieve the gift bag from his closet. He quickly takes the chance to wipe away the tears forming in his eyes before Mark returns, sitting back on the bed and gently plopping the gift in front of him.

Donghyuck looks at the gift bag. It’s red with an image of a puppy and kitten in snow, snuggled together in a large santa hat. _Merry Christmas_ it reads. He looks up at Mark as if to say _really?_

“I’m sorry… I forgot to buy a gift bag and this is all we had laying around,” Mark mutters, clearly embarrassed. “Just… open it please.”

Hyuck sighs and pulls the bag towards him, and wordlessly pulls out the gift, haphazardly wrapped in ripped out pages of a magazine and excessively taped. He let’s out a _tsk_ as he picks at the layers of taped paper. “You _suck_ at wrapping.”

“I know… Ugh, here let me help.”

“NO, I got it,” Hyuck spits out as he lurches away. “...I got it.”

He finally rips away what feels like the 50th layer of magazine pages and lets out a gentle, almost inaudible breath but Mark is fixated on him – desperate to not miss his reaction – and hears it.

Hyuck slowly finishes ripping away the rest of the paper and tape and unfolds the item and holds it up in front of his face, blocking Mark’s view of him. It’s a black button up shirt, covered in large sunflowers. Hyuck feels his eyes getting wet again but forces himself to stay composed and takes a deep breath. He’s startled by Mark’s hand on his own, forcing him to lower his arms and the shirt. He looks down before he can see Mark’s face.

“Do you… like it?” Mark asks hesitantly, his voice cracking at the end. _God why is he so fucking cute,_ Donghyuck thinks. “Sunflowers… because ‘full sun’ and you call your fans ‘sunflowers’ and–”

“...It’s nice.”

“Ah, good...cool.” 

Haechan doesn’t have to look up. He hears the smile on Mark’s lips.

“I… still don’t forgive you.” Haechan says, finally looking up.

“Wha–”

“Mark, it’s gonna take more than a shirt...to prove you care about me. That you value me as a friend… the way I do you.”

“ _What?_ Of course I do! What can I do? Please tell me, I’ll do anything.” Mark’s desperation is crystal clear in his voice and Donghyuck almost just gives in and tells him everything is fine – that everything can go back to normal but he maintains.

“I don’t _know_ Mark. I need time to think. I need distance from you. I feel like shit around you and I’m so damn sick of it.”

“Hyuck, it was a _joke._ You should know all about those, always pulling pranks and poking fun at others. You gave me _ketchup_ for my birthday that one time even though I hate it. I know you, this shouldn’t be that serious,” Mark says with a raised voice.

Donghyuck looks up, straight into Mark’s eyes with renewed resentment. “You _don’t_. You don’t know me as well as you think.”

“What? What are you talking abo–” Mark starts, but doesn’t get to finish.

Abruptly, Donghyuck is storming out of the room. He ignores Mark’s pleading and runs back to his room with the shirt clutched tightly in his hands. Mark flinches when he hears the door slam and decides against chasing after him. He knows when he’s defeated – when he needs to give up and try again another time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Please give a kudos if you liked this and comment too! If you have any feedback, please feel free to leave some! You can be as critical as you wish! If at all possible, please give specifics on areas I can improve whether it's pacing, dialogue, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure of etc etc. I don't consider myself a skilled writer at all and I'm trying to improve and become decent at this! Thank you so much <3
> 
> Next chapter coming... eventually! It'll most likely be more from Haechan's POV.
> 
> Btw [here's](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eatis_7U8AAr2Dk?format=jpg&name=large) the shirt Mark got Haechan hehe
> 
> ALSO, the title of this fic is inspired by my favorite song by Kelela called "Take Me Apart" (specifically [this remix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHZ11RoCCuI)) because it’s just so warm and romantic and makes me think of Markhyuck for some reason... Ok be back soon byeee <3


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